Recipe Friday

I got this recipe from my sister and my family loves it. It is also great for leftovers and to freeze.

Taco Soup

Chicken (4 breasts or 6 tenderloins)
Boil with shallow water in a big pot until cooked and tender, chopping up slightly. Drain water.

Then add to the pot:
dash of salt
dash of garlic salt or powder
dash of onion powder or chopped onion
1 package of taco seasoning
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of corn, or frozen
1 can of refried beans
1 can of pork 'n beans
1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can of pinto or kidney beans
1 package of dry ranch dressing

Stir everything together. Cook over medium heat until beans are soft and thick. Then put on low heat.

We like to serve with cheese, sour cream, and chips.

Painted Pot

I have recently been trying to find a cute pot to decorate to put my wooden letters in that I did last week. I had decided that though they are cute hanging on a wall, I had another idea in my head that I wanted to do. I finally found a pot even though it has some grooves on it. It did not turn out perfect, but I think that all handmade things show more personality if they are flawed. That is how you can see that they are handmade.

1. I used my Cricut (many of you know I love this machine) and made templates with some vinyl that I had. I made the butterflies 3 in tall and the flowers 2 in.

2. Next I took my time trying to carefully adhere them where I wanted them. Since the pot has grooves, it was a bit harder to get the vinyl as smooth as I wanted.3.I picked out my acrylic paint and dabber and painted them like I would a stencil.
4. I set it aside and let it dry for a few minutes and then carefully took off the vinyl. Now since the pot had grooves and I could not get the vinyl to lay as flat as I liked, I then had to go back with q-tips and clean up the outlines because some paint and gotten under the stencil and the lines were not as clean as I liked. I think I did an okay job. If I accidentally took too much off, I dipped the q-tip in the paint and gently dabbed it.

5. I am going to let it dry overnight and them spray or coat with a clear coat so the paint is shiny.

Chicken Wraps

Katie and I thought this would be a good recipe for today. It is so easy and both of our families just love them. I think we have them at least once a week.

You will need the following:

1 can of chicken (they can be found near the tuna fish)
1 tub of cream cheese (I think it is the 8oz, you will only need 1/2)
1 tablespoon of butter
1/4 cup of milk
1 can of crescent rolls
dash of salt and pepper
Bread crumbs (optional)
1 can of cream of chicken soup (optional)
Rice

Preheat oven to 325-350 degrees depending on how fast or hot your oven cooks.

In a mixing bowl, mix all the ingrediants together, rmember only 1/2 of the cream cheese. Open the crescent rolls and break them so that they are in squares. You will only be able to make 4 per crescent package. If you need more, then double the recipe.

Spoon equal amts of the mixtures into the middle of the crescent squares. Then fold the crescent opposites sides together and pinch it at the top.

This next part is optional. Take some bread crumbs and sprinkle on the top of the crescents.

Stick in the over for 20-25 min depending on how fast your over cooks. You just want them lightly browned on top but not dough in the middle.

If you want the sauce to put on top, take the can of cream of chicken soup and put in a small sauce pan. Fill the milk up 1/2 way in the can (if you fill the whole can up like the directions say, you get A LOT of sauce) and slowly whick on the stove, medium heat until is is bubbly.

Serve with rice and a side and you have a quick easy meal. The prep time is maybe 10-15 min. I like to make it in the morning and stick in the fridge and then when it is closer to dinner time, I just have to take out, put in the rolls and cook.

Decorative Wooden Letters

The tutorial for today is something that is so easy and so cute. I decided to do this for my daughter's friend's birthday.

1. Go to Michaels and pick out your letters. I like the white smaller letters.

2. Pick out the decorative paper that you want to use to dress up your letters. Then you put your letters on the front of the paper and trace around them and then cut them out.

3. Then you modge podge the letters onto the wooden letters. Then modge podge over the paper to keep the paper on their.
4. Then you can continue to dress them up anyway you want. I decided to add ribbon to mine.

After your letters are finished you can then decided what to do with them. Michaels also has white sticks that go in the letters and then you can put them in a white piece of wood that they have as well. But you could also put hooks in them and hang them on the wall, or find a cute flower pot and put the stick in the pot. Many different possiblites.

I put hooks in the back and put ribbon on them so she can hang them on her wall. (I am sorry it is sideways, I don't why it changes it)

Lasgna in a Pot

Here is another Laymon recipe that Katie and I grew up having. I like this meal because it is so quick and my family loves it.

1 bag of egg noodles
1 jar of spagetti sauce
1 bag of shredded cheese
1 container of sour cream or rigotta cheese

Boil the egg noodles. Drain. Put back in pot. Then toss in as much sauce, sour cream or rigatta cheese, and shredded cheese that you want. I like mine creamy and my kids like it cheesey so I probably over do a little bit of the cheese. Stir and serve. I serve it with bread and broccoli on the side. It is super fast and easy and a great leftover meal as well. If you don't want to make a lot, just use 1/2 a bag of the egg noodles.

Tutorial Tuesday

For this tutorial Tuesday, I am going to show you how to make a photo quilt.The great thing about photo quilts, is that you can do so many different things to them. You can do as little or as many squares and pictures as you want, different fabrics, and you can also make it into a wall hanging instead of a quilt.

This was the first photo quilt that I made several years ago for my best friend.

Photo quilt my mom made for her exchange student

Another one that my mom made

Materials you will need for a twin size quilt:
-3 yards of fabric (60" wide) for the top
-3 yards of fabric (60" wide) for the bottom (if you don't want to use batting, buy fleece for the bottom)
-1 yard of white fabric
-batting
-thread
-needle
-Quick Fuse by june tailor - 3 per pack White, fusible inkjet fabric sheets or Avery Printable Fabric #3384, Inkjet, 5 sheets per pack White, Iron-on or sew (these are the brands that I like to use)
-yarn

1. For the first step, you want to get your pictures printed out on the fabric sheets. Then you are going to iron the picture onto white fabric. Be sure to read the instructions on the fabric sheets and follow those instructions. For the photos, you can put just one picture in each square, or you can make a collage of the pictures for each square.

Hopefully this won't confuse you more, but these are instructions that my mom made for me awhile ago that I followed.

2. You are going to cut the strips of fabric out that will go around the photos. You can make the strips of fabric next to the photo however wide you want it to be. If you want less fabric between the picture, than make the strips skinner. If you want more fabric, then make them wider. I think my strips were about 6". Remember to add the 5/8" allowance. The bottom, top, and middle strips are going to be wider than all the other strips. Mine were about 8". When you are cutting the strips, make sure they are all even so the rows match up evenly when all together.

3. Now start sewing!! Sew the first row first. Fabric strip, picture, strip, picture, strip, picture, strip. Repeat for the other two rows.

4. Then sew the top strip to the top of the first row. Then sew the middle strip to the bottom of the first row. Then sew the next row to the middle strip....and so on, until you sew on the bottom strip. Ta Da! Now the top of the photo quilt is done!

5. Next, lay the bottom right side down. Then lay the batting down on top of that. Then lay the top of the quilt right side up on top of the batting. (One quilt I made, I did not use batting. Instead, I used fleece for the bottom fabric and it worked out great)

6. Fold the bottom fabric over the top fabric about an inch and pin. Sew around the edges.

7. Then start threading and tying the yarn around the quilt evenly.

And you are done!!

The photo quilts do not hold up in the washer very well. You have to dry clean them, I believe. The washer might ruin the pictures. You can also make a wall hanging instead of a quilt.

This is a wall hanging that Amanda made

Sorry this picture is sideways! Blogger keeps rotating it...anyways, here is another wall hanging that Amanda made for her daughter

For the wall hanging, you will only need 2 yards of fabric. And the top strip will be a lot longer so you can fold it over to put the rod through it.

I hope that wasn't too confusing for you!!!

Saturday Spotlight on SITS

WOW!!! We are being featured on the Saturday Spotlight on SITS :) We are very, very excited about it. Plus, we are giving away some really cute things over there. So go stop over and say hi and enter the giveaway!